"Never forget it is real people who live out such tales and bear the price of the telling, in grief and guilt and sorrow". -Jacqueline Carey

Month: July 2016

I had this brilliant idea last year that I was going to write an on-going story for my blog – each Friday I was going to post something until the story was complete. I ended up doing pretty well for a while, but around the middle of the story, I realized I had no idea how it was supposed to end. I kept writing things, but I ended up getting more confused. After five entries, I stopped altogether because I’d finally reached that critical point where it needed an ending.

I can’t believe it’s taken me a year to pick it back up and give the darn thing an ending!

I re-read the whole thing this morning to help me on my way, but I wouldn’t feel right about just posting the ending without refreshing your memory as well (or for those of you who weren’t around a year ago, reading the whole thing for the first time). I figured I would post parts of it every day, starting today, and post the finale on Thursday. So, I’ll probably be over-posting this week, but I hope you won’t be sorry.

The Beach House – Part 1

It was a long drive from Greensboro to St. Augustine, but Jane was in good company, classic rock was blaring through the speakers and all the windows were rolled down. It was the best start to a spring break she could ever remember.

When she had hinted at plans, she never dreamed Brandon would come up with something as fantastic as a beach house, much less a “beach mansion” as he so gleefully stated when he told her about it. His cousin swore it was huge and could hold as many as they wanted to bring, but they were only able to talk Jen and Walter into the drive. Oh well, more space for the four of them to either spread out and act like it was a relationship get-a-way or mingle in common spaces for a party of four.

They’d been on the road most of the day and Jane was getting restless. She’d offered to drive several times, but Brandon seemed set on getting them there. Jen and Walter had spent most of the drive wrapped around each other either making out or sleeping. It was starting to wear on her nerves. At least, that’s what she blamed it on. She couldn’t think of anything else that would explain why she felt so jittery.

She reached for Brandon’s hand, feeling better with the skin-to-skin contact. “Hey Babe, how much longer do you think?”

He squeezed her hand as he tilted his head her way and a slow, lazy smile spread across his face. “I’d say an hour at the most. You excited?”

She smiled back at him. “I am. I’m just ready to get out of the car and let these two sex addicts have some privacy.” Her head jerked in the direction of the back seat.

“I resent that!” Jen managed to pull her face away from Walter’s for the short burst, but was right back into it only seconds later.

Jane rolled her eyes and smiled. “God, you two are ridiculous!”

“Hey,” Walter managed, “you guys were just as bad when you first started dating. Now you’re as boring as my parents!”

They all laughed but it wasn’t long before Walter and Jen were back at it.

Jane turned back to Brandon. “You feeling okay?”

His eyes were back on the road but he glanced at her again with a concerned look. “Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know. I just have this creepy feeling that started a while ago and I can’t shake it.”

“We’re almost there. I think you’re just tired. It’s been a rough few weeks with mid-terms and work. We’ll relax in the hot tub as soon as we get there. You’ll be feeling good in no time, I promise.” He wiggled his eyebrows and raised her hand to his lips.

Smiling, she leaned her head back onto the seat and tried to relax.

**

Dusk was just spilling across the sky as they made their way up the gravel driveway that led to their oceanfront getaway. When they pulled up in front of the house, they all took one look at it then looked at Brandon.

“This is the mansion?” Walter flipped his blond hair out of his eyes and turned to Jen with a wry look on his face.

She giggled as Brandon said, “It’s not like he gave me a picture guys. He just said a beach mansion. His words, not mine.”

“Well, if this is a mansion, my dorm room must be paradise.” Walter was laughing now and almost doubled over at his own joke.

The house or cottage or whatever the hell it was didn’t look like it would hold the four of them. It sat huddled against the dense trees that hid the ocean and looked as if it had seen many years of humidity and ocean spray. The once-red paint was chipped and fading and the screen door looked like it was barely hanging on.

Jane was about as impressed as they all were, but it had been a long drive and she was beat. She didn’t care if she slept in a shack at this point. She just wanted to lie down in a comfortable bed after a shot or two of vodka and spend a few hours making love before falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

“Well, it might not be a mansion, but it’s our home for the next week. Might as well make ourselves comfortable.”

She stepped out of the car into the humid night air, took her bag out of the trunk and started walking to the front door. She walked about halfway before turning back to the party still standing by the car.

“You guys coming, or what?”

They all gathered up what they could carry and headed inside, determined to make the best of their mansion-turned-cottage-but-still-on-the-ocean. None of them noticed the dark sedan that slowly crept up the driveway and stopped a few yards away from their car.

Once inside, they made their way through the house, luckily finding two bedrooms that would accommodate each couple. After depositing their luggage in their respective rooms, they made their way to the back of the house and the deck that led onto the beach. They all stood mesmerized by the ocean as its waves danced along the shore in a spectacular greeting.

Brandon was standing behind Jane with his arms around her. As he leaned his face into her long, brunette curls, she jumped up, bumping his nose with her head.

“What is it, Babe?” Brandon asked.

“I don’t know. I thought I saw something over there.” Her hand shook as she pointed off to the side of the house.

Brandon leaned past her, closer to the window, trying to see what she was pointing at. His body tensed against her and his voice came out strained.

While I knew right away which movie I was going with, but picking the song was hard because August Rush is so full of amazing songs. I’ve posted before that this is probably my all-time favorite movie, and I even wrote a poem based on one of the scenes in the movie.

What’s not to love about a movie based on a family finding each other through music? I cried through 90% of the movie when I watched it the first time, and it still manages to get me when I watch it now. If you haven’t seen it, I would highly suggest watching it. Then, you can let me know what you think. I could talk all day about that movie.

It also features Robin Williams which is always a plus, even if he doesn’t play the nicest character. The strangest part about his character though, is that I agree with a lot of what he says in the movie; he just has some really bad methods. I suppose that would be a flawed character whom we love to hate.

I picked the song Something Inside because it is beautiful and I love the overlay of the bass in the beginning and throughout. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

When the one thing you’re looking for
Is nowhere to be found
And you back stepping all of your moves
Trying to figure it out
You wanna reach out
You wanna give in
Your head’s wrapped around what’s around the next bend
You wish you could find something warm
‘Cause you’re shivering cold
It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as your saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying and driving you on
It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as your saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying and driving you on

‘Cause if you hadn’t found me
I would have found you
I would have found you

So long you’ve been running in circles
‘Round what’s at stake
But now the times come for your feet to stand still in one place
You wanna reach out
You wanna give in
Your head’s wrapped around what’s around the next bend
You wish you could find something warm
‘Cause you’re shivering cold
It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as your saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying and driving you on
It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as your saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying and driving you on

‘Cause if you hadn’t found me
I would have found you
I would have found you

It was your first taste of love
Living upon what you had

It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as your saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying and driving you on

‘Cause if you hadn’t found me
I would have found you
I would have found you
I would have found you
I would have found you

Song Lyric Sunday is open to anyone who wants to share music. Please feel free to click the link, read the rules and post one of your own.

I have to tell you, you guys are pretty great. I could only listen to/read half of your posts on Sunday because I was crying and sometimes laughing, but for the most part it was just too heavy for one sitting. I finished them up on Monday and I was completely inspired. Thank you so much for making this such an amazing experience for me. As I’ve said before, I couldn’t have imagined this when I started this blog prompt.

Considering it was a little heavy last week, although entirely warranted, I think we’ll go in a completely different direction this week.

A friend recommended a band to me a few weeks ago and as I was listening to a particular song, I thought I’d heard it before but I couldn’t place it. I finally looked the song up, and it was featured in a movie. It was a movie I hated, but that song must have sunk deep into my psyche because I remembered it… maybe not the words or even the song necessarily, but definitely something.

So, our theme for Song Lyric Sunday is to post a song that was featured in a movie. It can be a song from a favorite movie, or one of your favorite songs that was featured in a movie.

As always, you can go your own way and post a song that has nothing to do with the prompt. We’re all here sharing our love of music and lyrics, and most of all, having a great time!

Here are the “rules”:

Post the lyrics to a favorite song or a new song you want to share

Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due and it’s honestly just a simple Google search

Make sure you also credit the singer/band and provide a link to where you found the lyrics

Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song

Ping back to this post or my own Song Lyric Sunday post

Read at least one other person’s blog so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process

Feel free to use the Song Lyric Sunday badge by copying it into your post or add it to your site to show you are participating.

When I was growing up, I remember watching a show on public television that featured a painter. I used to love how he could take a blank canvas and create images with, what seemed to me, splotches of paint here and there. It all happened so fast, but when it was over, he had created a lovely forest, or a lake or any number of beautiful pictures.

I remember thinking that I wanted to be able to do that. I lived in that dream until I took an art class in 7th grade and realized I just didn’t have the drawing thing. Whatever it was that they had, I didn’t have it. I couldn’t translate what was in my head to the paper. At that point, I resigned myself to never being an artist.

Isn’t it funny how we have an idea in our head of what something is? An artist is so much more than someone who paints or draws.

It wasn’t until my daughter went to a performing arts high school that I realized that art basically flows in my blood. I love art in every form and some I can even participate in, like writing.

It was also at that time, that I realized each one of my kids had the same blood flowing through them. Adelle amazes me almost daily with her artistic talents. She decided in her sophomore year in high school that acting just wasn’t for her, but she loves the back stage action. She builds sets for the theater and also paints a little in her spare time.

I didn’t have any pictures of any of her finished projects, but I found this one of her “on the job” that I am love with. She also painted me the picture below and gave it to me for Christmas.

Jaxon loves his football, but I think his real passion is for drawing and finding the beauty in the world around him. As some of you know, I’ve featured his photos on my Worldess Wednesday posts, but I’ll share another one with you here. He has such a good eye for capturing the beauty in our world.

He also loves to draw and these are just a few of the things he’s drawn free hand.

I’ve already posted quite a bit about Andru. In fact, I just did a search on my blog for his name, and I was surprised at how many posts came up. I quote that kid all the time because he is funny as hell. Turns out, he also has the biggest imagination. He creates stories in his head and acts them out and changes them when he gets bored. I wrote about one in my post, My Son’s Imaginings.

He was bored this summer and decided to write a story. Here is a small excerpt from it:

“Just to give you an idea of my situation, I was in a doorway that was at the far left corner from the main doors. He was sort of limp-walking across the room. And as he started to get closer, I heard him mutter in a harsh, hoarse voice, “Don’t Make a sound.” As he said this, he looked up to reveal a horrifying sight. He had blood and what looked like tears dripping down from his eye sockets – his very dark and very empty eye sockets. The blood and tears dripped down to a wide, creepy smile.”

I suppose the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree when it comes to artistic ability and I couldn’t be a more proud Mama.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G. Hill. “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “art.” Write a post regarding “art,” be it an object or a name. Note: I’m not asking you to draw something, but if you’d like to, we’d love to see that too! Enjoy!” Feel free to click the link and join us in our stream of consciousness writing.

The rain is pelting faster and harder than anyone could have expected. Laughing at the madness, I somehow remember the weather forecast from the morning news: “We might see some scattered showers in the late afternoon, so enjoy your sunny morning, folks.”

I also remember the thought that floated through my mind and then vanished when I left the house that morning, running late for work as usual: What sun? There’s nothing but clouds out here.

Would it have made a difference if we’d known?

Looking out the store window where I’d run for shelter, I watch as the water rises higher every second.

No, it probably wouldn’t have helped.

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly flash fiction prompt where we are given a photo and asked to write a 100 word story – beginning, middle and end. This one came in at 110 words.

I’ve talked about balance before, but somehow the lack of balance is an ongoing issue in my life. When I first started this blog, I was in a job where I worked maybe two hours in a day and the rest of the time I sat at my desk not really working. Not only that, I didn’t even have to pretend I was working for some strange reason. So, I spent a lot of time reading blogs and writing. Even when I wasn’t reading blogs and writing, I had way more time to think about posts (or even stories) I wanted to write.

I don’t know why it’s taken me almost a year to realize I’m just not able to keep up now that my day job has change, but I just can’t. I’ve noticed it mostly in the types of posts I’m writing now compared to what they were a year ago. I’ve only written one story this year that was longer than 100 words, and while I started the year off writing a post every day, it’s become more stressful than fun.

Blogging should be fun, I say! But, I do miss my blog and all of you when I’m not able to post every day.

I’m still trying to figure things out, but I believe it has a lot to do with some of the prompts I follow. I’m for sure giving up Teaser Tuesday. I’m not sure I was doing it correctly, but I felt like I had to post a different book every week; however, I can’t even read one book a month at this point. So, I ended up posting a lot of books I’ve already read, but sadly, that list is not as long as I’d like it to be.

I also felt it necessary (I’m SO OCD!!) to post Friday Fictioneers on Friday and Sunday Photo Fiction on Sunday, but that isn’t happening any more. What I might try is writing the stories over the weekend and scheduling them on different days during the week. I’m just hoping that works for those posting the prompt…

Anyway, this pretty much explains some of my absence recently. I’m just trying to figure it all out, which comes down to balance for me.

I appreciate all of you who have stuck with me and continue to support me. I love this blogging community! I’m not going anywhere, but things might change a little bit on This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time… just a little bit, anyway.

Well, I'm dyslexic so writing about something I love: Music, might help but it's most likely just full of mistakes. That title is also lyrics from The Drones song called I Don't Want To Change. Oh, my name is William and thanks for having a look.